The Paris 2024 Olympic Games organizing committee has four years left before the event’s opening. It is scheduled for Friday, July 26, 2024, at the Stade de France. It’s both a lot of time and not much at all.
Just under three years have passed since the International Olympic Committee session in Lima awarded the French capital its first Summer Games in a century. The Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (COJO) is not yet quite halfway through, but four years from the games is a significant milestone.
The Paris organizers planned to celebrate in Tokyo, before receiving the Olympic flag from the Japanese during the closing ceremony of the 2020 Games. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted their plans, delaying the handover by a year but without altering their roadmap.
Four years from the deadline, where does the COJO stand? Behind, ahead, or on schedule?
Part One: The Sports.
What has been accomplished
Quite a lot, nearly everything. The sports directorate, led since the start by Jean-Philippe Gatien, hasn’t slowed down. The Paris 2024 Games will feature 28 sports, and unless something unexpected happens, 4 additional sports.
On the topic of the additional sports, one of the most anticipated decisions before Tokyo 2020, Paris 2024 decided in February 2019 to select climbing, skateboarding, surfing, and breaking. The first three, already selected for the Tokyo Games, were expected. The fourth, much less so.
Among those not chosen, squash and pétanque had a French flavor, with governance (Jacques Fontaine, president of World Squash) and players for squash, and governance (Claude Azéma, president of the World Confederation of Boules Sports) and culture for pétanque. Evidently, this was not enough. Karate, another major disappointment from the selection, also present in Tokyo as an additional sport, has not given up hope of reversing the trend.
The COJO’s proposal was already validated by the IOC session in June 2019 in Lausanne. It now needs to be definitively adopted. The final decision from the Olympic executive board is expected by the end of the year.
Another dossier nearing completion: the recruitment of sports administrators within the COJO. The “sport managers” are tasked with overseeing the preparation of various disciplines in direct connection with international federations.
The recruitment process began late last year and is still ongoing. Several positions have already been filled. The COJO is currently finalizing certain offers with the leading candidates.
The Parisian team has chosen not to slow down or interrupt the recruitment process, despite the postponement of the Tokyo Games. There are currently six job offers online for “sport manager” positions. They pertain to sailing, rowing, table tennis, boxing, gymnastics, and weightlifting.
What remains to be done
Finalizing the program. But unlike the site map, which is also still tentative, the decision does not belong to the COJO. The Paris organizers are consulted by the IOC regarding the choice of disciplines to be included in 2024, but their final selection remains the privilege of the Olympic body.
The process involves three steps. First, passing through the program commission, second through the executive board, and a third and final step before the session. The intermediate step will be decisive. It is scheduled for the end of 2020.
With the Olympic calendar disrupted, Thomas Bach and the members of the executive board will not wait for the Tokyo Games to decide. They will approve (or not) the four additional sports without having been able to evaluate their relevance in the Olympic setting, at least for surfing, skateboarding, and climbing.
The IOC must also sort through the disciplines proposed by some international federations to be added to the Paris 2024 Games. The International Rowing Federation advocates for coastal rowing. World Athletics campaigns for cross-country.
In the post-pandemic context, they will need to demonstrate that adding these disciplines can enhance the Games, without increasing the number of athletes and, above all, the overall cost. Not simple.
